PEOCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY. 975 



Mr. Crisp said that at their first meeting after the Jubilee of the 

 British Association at York a protest should be entered, not against 

 the remarks of Sir John Lubbock, but against the provincial papers 

 who had headed the paragraphs of the Presidential Address which 

 related to the visibility of atoms with the title, " Stagnation of the 

 Microscope." Before many years the Society would be celebrating 

 its jubilee, and perhaps then their president would show how much 

 had been done during the last fifty years to improve both the 

 instrument and the objectives. 



The President announced that the Council had appointed a small 

 committee to consider the subject of standard gauges for eye-pieces 

 and substages, and they would be glad to hear any opinions from 

 Fellows as to carrying it out. A great deal of attention had recently 

 been drawn to the matter. 



Mr. Beck, in reply to the President, said it might possibly be 

 considered to be out of place for a manufacturer to give an opinion 

 upon the subject, but he thought that the suggestion would be found 

 difficult to carry out in practice, particularly if it was contemplated 

 that all opticians should accept the same standards. It was beyond 

 question that it was desirable that there should be a uniform gauge 

 for object-glasses, so that those of various makers might be inter- 

 changeable ; but when they came to eye-pieces, he thought that if 

 the Society should say that he must make his eye-pieces the same 

 size as Nachet's, for instance, he could not accept it, although, no 

 doubt, Nachet had as good reasons for adopting his own pattern as 

 English makers had for theirs. It must also be borne in mind that 

 the length of the body was an important point with some makers, and 

 so was the length of the substage, and the same apparatus would 

 clearly be unsuitable for all Microscopes. 



Mr. Crisp said he did not suppose it would be suggested that there 

 should be only one gauge for eye-pieces. 



Mr. T. Powell, in reply to a question, said that he quite concurred 

 in the remarks of Mr. Beck. 



Mr. Curties did not regard it as an impossible result to carry out 

 the object for which the committee was appointed, but he should 

 himself prefer that the matter be left where it was. A maker doubt- 

 less made his apparatus in the way best suited to his own Microscopes, 

 and he could not be responsible for its performance when otherwise 

 employed. 



Mr. Groves said that, speaking as a worker, he thought that if the 

 idea could be carried out, it would be a great comfort to himself and 

 his fellow- workers, especially in the case of a class of students, where 

 it would be of the greatest convenience to be able to apply various 

 apparatus to the same Microscope. 



Mr. Beck said that he should very much like to see united action 

 amongst the Fellows of the Society in regard to some special subject 

 for general examination, and to have an evening set apart for its con- 

 sideration, so as to see the different modes in which different persons 



